The existence of things like the Pinecil is proof that putting computers into things that don't seem like they should have computers in them is actually cool and good and we should do it more. It's only capitalism that makes everything awful.
The Pinecil is an open source portable soldering iron with a 32 bit microprocessor. It uses the computer for all sorts of cool shit, mostly power management. It automatically tunes it's pids to keep an extremely stable temperature in a wide range of conditions that thermal mass alone can't manage. It also uses the computer to allow the display and controls to be flipped for left handed people. And a bunch of stuff like allowing you to adjust all sorts of parameters like sleep timers, power limits, etc. Being open source you can program it to do whatever you want if you know how. It also regularly gets firmware updates to add functionality.
It takes a dc jack and USB C for power input. You can plug almost any power supply into it, including phone chargers. It won't work on cheaper phone chargers because they aren't capable of delivering enough current, but it will still let you try. So in practice it is limited to "only" 9-21 volt power supplies. Anything in that range works. You can also plug drone/rc batteries into it. The chance of you ever being in a place where you need a soldering iron but can't find a power supply for it are basically zero because of this.
Oh, and because it's open source anyone can download the schematics and make them so they are like $30. Most open source hardware is like that. It's only capitalism that makes every new technology awful. Like seriously, how do they manage to make something as simple and awesome as "you can control your home ac and lights and stuff from your phone" an awful nightmare?
(I apologize for how directionless this post is.)
Good post 👍
Likewise, isn't it suspicious how a laptop having a 1080p+ display is bordering on premium feature even in 2022, but apple sells a tablet and a keyboard stand "case" (making it essentially a laptop) for $450 with an excellent 1440p display and specs that blow anything under like $700 out of the water? The tradeoff of course is that you can't do any arbitrary thing you would like on it, and have to pay $2 here and $3 there for basic functions, the content creation is not there, privacy is impossible, you cannot run arbitrary software or your own OS even though you own the thing. And then apple is trying to push it as a laptop replacement without adding these features.
The reason is obvious, they want strict control over what you do with your own computer, but computer guys won't put up with that, so they sidestep that problem by making a computer that is not a "computer". The plan is working too because gen Z is growing up not even knowing how to use a keyboard, or understanding what they're missing out on.
Don't even get me started on the phone-ification they're pushing on computer UIs